The patronage of elite Highland pipers collapsed after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. Worried that the classical music of the Gaels would fade away, the English-speaking gentry offered prize money for scientific notations. By 1797, Colin Campbell had written 377 pages in a unique notation based on the vocables of Hebridean ‘mouth music’, but – unintelligible to the judges in Edinburgh – Campbell’s extraordinary work of preservation has remained overlooked or misunderstood until now.
Swiss group Oz Urugulu is one of the most original and exciting bands out there today. Citing weird food, old video games, and bad movies as major influences, the band is a mixed bag of odd styles and approaches. In zappaesque fashion, the instrumental Oz Urugulu demonstrate with their uncompromising and self-ironic second album "Fashion and Welfare", how the most adverse genres can be melted into something quite wonderful. Prog rock, jazz, oriental or film music - this band is hard to put your finger on. Immerse yourself for 56 minutes into these carefully crafted and joyfully experimental compositions.
Quintessence was the great underground band of the 1970s. Formed in March 1969, they were quickly signed to Island Records and later that year released their debut album, In Blissful Company. Between 1969-71, Quintessence, a counterculture phenomenon, made three albums for Island Records. Now, recently sourced from Island's multi-track tapes and digitised at Abbey Road Studios, this packed 2CD set reveals a wealth of stunning, hitherto unheard recordings in pristine studio sound.
In March 2016 Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, guitars in hand, boarded a Los Angeles-bound train at Chicago’s Union Station looking to reconnect with the culture of American railroad travel and the music it inspired. Winding along 2,728 miles of track over four days, the pair recorded classic railroad songs in waiting rooms and at trackside while the train paused to pick up passengers.